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End of the Flu?

The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks with Joseph Kim of Inovio about how a universal flu vaccine may be on the horizon.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... IBM leading innovation conference in Singapore joining me now is just that can ... see yell at any of the of fun to see us it's good to see you get to see in the animation here so I wanna start with innovation and pharmaceuticals ... on we as a division head and and and what are the big changes your seat ... well new technologies are being applied to make new medicines of Eden ... and arguably we are making huge and ... it said he's starting to be controlled ... we're going after other diseases like malaria and TB ... and then another chronic infectious disease ... let's start with the flu vaccine indicates ... that something that everyone was really familiar with this year on retainer academic ... levels in the US ... so ... when you as a pharmaceutical company I've always wondered how is it that me and gas and doesn't take a stand on animation to guess what the next ... flu strain is going to be two to six ... mothers surveillance photos smart thinking ... but it takes the guess ... so what Enobia farmers of course is doing is really innovating beyond that the guesses ... I we we are developing a universal flu vaccine ... we could take a set of ... universal vaccine and they can protect against ... difference trends perhaps even universal ... soul that is though the team ... then we are working the cayenne said this year's Ranbaxy it with how many percent effective doing an act ... so he didn't do that to ... him at every year ... here on the protected from Surrey strengths of possible thousands of different strains ... there's always a gamble and always the small ... probability that there will be an outbreak ... the new vaccine cannot ... protect said in many many cases that's rare that we saw over it in in the last month there said ... those are ones that were not given the vaccine obviously didn't work right it's at and ... said our eight year innovating new creating in this flu vaccine and that basically covers everything and how do you do that ... so we use us and then a consensus approach the company has to go ... so and then a Malay man stanzas of the spanking three viruses to protect against we actually line up ... all the ... DNA sequence from all the known strengths ... and using an algorithm ... informatics ... for Temple out a fully synthetic ... but also for we consensus sequence ... that in in in theory can protect against a the wide variety of strains different strengths ... perhaps even be universal and thus far ... but unable to show that in him and couldn't put this thing really testing thus far ... Kissel and INFA really works for them was the nine year or so will be able to tell ... us what the weekend before universal enough but we've already seen progress ... thus far from a recent study of the just completed ... the been able to protect ... patients ... in some of these patients against all nine different dominant ... showing strains of the last hundred years ... of each one and one ... when they're sitting in the pharmaceutical industry what you decide you're going to ... create I mean this so it is again in Indiana uses out there right ... so how do you decide ... well we we we we take a look I mean we were not as big as Pfizer Mar so we have to ... deploy their resources in the most effective way ... so with a pillar technology women get to the market demand for certain diseases ... with a kid can serve you more of the ... impact for ... targets the region left ... so we think ... Targa Lexibook Cancer weenie and ... Garda so in server export Gray was so preventive vaccine ... but so many millions of women are already infected with the virus ... so there's some these for treatment vaccine ... and that's why Enobia decided to develop a treatment action ... as a cervical cancer study even today is the second leading ... cancer killer and one and around the world ... it has sat in the case that shocked at ... how is innovation are really changing because of technology in in ... in in ten years ago ... I mean it wasn't much different world was a time ... there was a different world come from the way I can tell you from our perspective ... this is of billions of dollars and nine and two deciphered the genomes of humans ... and the friend Adam Morrison and pathogens and so on ... and that's what our companies using to develop these vaccines against ... the because we Ardi understand their genetic sequences ... so we can start to engineer ... products based on that ... though obviously we can do all the prep for ... leading up to this our own but ... were able to take the ball and run because of all the ... foundational sciences and ... Kate great thanks Fran that's just a continue reading here at and leasing in a nation that there may not be a flu anymore ... thanks to end it here ... I'm Deborah con for The Wall Street Journal